How Two Gentoo Chicks escaped from the Beastly Skua Bird
Updated: Dec 30, 2020
Fun Facts: Gentoo penguins are the most romantic of all birds. When a Gentoo falls in love, he brings his love the smoothest, loveliest rock he can find. This is his gift to his lady love.
Often the Gentoo penguins fight over the smoothest rock. The males might even fight over one rock. If one finds a lovely rock and the others haven't, you can imagine the kerfuffle.
All is fair in love and war... as they say.
Once the two Gentoo penguins decide they are going to be together, they make a nest of stones to lay an egg (or two). After the chicks hatch, the parents must leave them alone for hours while they dive for fish... to feed them.
Which is when our story starts...
We created the story after seeing videos on how skuas grab baby gentoo chicks from under the mothers or fathers from their nests. The skuas were vicious, the gentoo penguins were sweet and gentle. We searched to see if gentoo chicks EVER managed to escape the skuas?
We found one video... that made us happy.
So here we're showing what happened in story form.
Papa Gentoo and Mama Gentii didn't want to leave their two chicks alone, but they had to.
They had to catch fish.
Once, the two Gentoo chicks were alone in their nest when the big, beastly skua bird, whose name was Scar - the most dreaded of all predators - stopped by.
The two Gentoo chicks had been snuggling against each other, weak with hunger.
The older one was a boy, whose name was Gogo, and the other was a girl whose name was Gigi. Gogo was more energetic and adventurous than Gigi, but they loved each other and huddled with each other whenever they could. Today they dozed fitfully. They felt faint. The last meal they had eaten was hours ago.
"Gogo!" Gigi suddenly whispered, raising her head. "Look in front of you."
What Gogo saw made his feathers stand on their fluffy ends.
A nasty-looking brown skua bird was watching them, its wicked beak wide open.
Gigi: "Scar! The beastliest of skuas! What should we do, Gogo? Give him a rock?"
Gogo: "I don't want to marry him, Gigi."
Gigi: "I think giving Scar a rock will help."
Gogo: "If I can throw it at him, it might. No, rocks will not rescue us. Open your mouth and snarl, Gigi. Let's both snarl."
"Snarl?" Gigi said. "How do I snarl?"
Scar flared his wings and inched closer.
He hissed at Gogo.
Then swerved toward Gigi.
Gogo: "Whatever you do, don't TURN. If you turn and try to run, he will grab you."
Gigi: "Run where? There's a hill behind us. We can't run up a hill."
Gogo: "Quick! Then dive into that hole."
Gigi: "Phew! Safe at last!"
Gogo: "Scar looks mad - doesn't he?"
Gigi: "Is he hungry? Or is he angry?"
Gogo: "Hehehe. I think he is HANGRY".
If only it were so simple. Let's keep enough fish in the ocean, friends! So the gentoo mamas and papas can return quickly to their baby chicks. Given the amount we humans eat, gentoo penguins have to dive for hours to bring back even a few fish for their chicks.
The longer they stay away, the more baby chicks get caught...
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